LOOP - Closing the food-energy loop

LOOP addresses global challenges by combining expertise in biology, technology, innovation and society. Our vision is to provide solutions to reduce impact on the climate from food and energy production.

Photo: Emiel Molenaar, Unsplash

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LOOP concepts integrated in teaching

Students attending the batchelor course in biology (BIO2020) will take part in ongoing research at Department of Biosciences. They will study the microbial diversity in digestate from food waste, which are intended as substrate for crop production at the Magic factory. Their results will be compared with microbial diversity in soil from conventionally grown crops and give the first insights into the benefits of using food waste as input in food production. The students will learn basic methods suitable for diversity studies, such as microscopying, molecular methods and bioinformatics, and build compentence in how biodiversity can be used to address grand societal challanges. Research from LOOP are organizing the course.

Motivation

Demand for both food and energy will increase dramatically in the coming decades because of population growth and improved living standards. Therefore, food security and energy security are two of the main challenges for the future on this planet and critically important for the survival of our civilization as we know it. The agricultural sector is only partially responsible for energy production but entirely responsible for the production of food and also responsible for large greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, notable nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4), the latter of which also is a potential source of energy. Meanwhile, there is a major concern that renewable energy sources often uses crops that can also be used as food. Therefore it is important to realize that food security and energy security are integrated challenges. The critical question is how food and energy needs of the future world economies will be met while the emissions of harmful GHGs are reduced. The overall goal of LOOP is to address these global challenges by a cross-approach involving scientists from biology, technology, innovation and society.